The sun is shining, the wind is blowing (20-30kmh) and 24 CT teams are awaiting the start of the inaugaral Acropolis Cup! How selective will this course be?
Mendes, Zeits or Lejman as the most promising (pure) puncheurs - Favilli, Vastaranta or Rabon as the most promising finishers. An interesting profile for sure.
A first breakaway attempt from Paiani, Le Montagner, Chenaux, Henttala and Witmitz was shut down by the pack quickly! Eventually, it's a duo breaking clear in the second lap then:
Molnar Bertilsson
They build a lead up to almost seven minutes before the pack (mostly led by Several, Netia, DeLaval and also Molnar's OTP mates later on) starts chasing..
The duo's lead is down to 2'20" with now still 41km left and the first notable attacks coming quite early here:
De Maar Rabon
and also Zeits try to go clear!
Definitely a serious move and the trio indeed opens up a 30"-gap quickly!
32km to go and while the new chasing trio holds on to this small gap on the pack, the action goes on. Three riders attacking the bunch and one unfortunate rider going down with a crash:
Zeits as the unlucky one...
Kinney Uchima Vastaranta as the newest attackers!
Zeits will be back on the bike quickly, but he's back in the peloton, obviously. What a bad moment to fall on this tricky descent..
It's quite an action-packed race also the next ten kilometres, as we see a chasing group with favorites being built, while on rider managed to storm to a solo-lead with now 21km left:
De Maar goes past Bertilsson/Molnar now!
A group of six riders came together a few seconds behind the early escapees:
Kinney Uchima Vastaranta Shushemoin Molard Rabon
So Rabon couldn't hang on with a strong going De Maar!
We see some more riders attacking the pack now..
Namely:
Lejman Mendes Godoy Simon
The big guns may fear to miss out on maybe crucial moves, so they try to jump behind those at the front now!
The race settled down then and with still De Maar at the front - and the early escapees also holding on to a small gap on the first chasing group - we notice that those latest attackers couldn't break clear from the pack:
Strava pulls the strings hard at the front of the pack (87 riders left) and already swallowed Mendes, Lejman, Godoy/Simon with now about 14km remaining! Also group Vastaranta/Rabon/Kinney is soon to be caught by the Strava-train, while De Maar is about a minute ahead now..
No more attacks until the final 6km of the race: De Maar leading by just 35" seconds now, while Bertilsson/Molnar finally got reeled in by the pack (66 riders)!
Novak now attacks out of the pack! Will this late move pay off? No more real difficulties ahead, so the race didn't allow a major selection, it seems..
Less than 2.5km left and Novak couldn't hold off the bunch (56 riders left)! It will come down to a sprint from a quite big group, but will a solo move survive?
De Maar leading by now just 18 seconds..
Fankhauser Zielinski Kuboki at the front of the pack now..
This is a close one for De Maar, but he's significally slower than those who are now already catching up to the solo leader with the flamme rouge already reached!
as those names in the most promising positions! No sign of Mendes, Lejman or Rabon, who seemed to burned themselves with their attempts to break clear..
De Maar still at the front, but his efforts won't result in a victory today:
Fankhauser and Vastaranta already close behind, with Simon flying to front as well!
Kuboki, Zielinski/Matysiak, Bauer.. and three Alpinas with some good speed, too!
Molard moving forward from behind, Zeits trying to hang on!
Simon with clearly the best sprint though, as he easily went past Vastaranta/Fankhauser/De Maar just a few moments later!
Soler appears to be Alpina's strongest, Kuboki/Zielinski still in the mix for the podium, while Bauer more and more struggles to keep his pace. Molard still making up ground..
Favilli? Well, despite working hard to pull back the attackers, Strava now didn't show too much efforts in the bunch sprint! You may notice Einsle/Favilli pedalling towards the finish.. surely no notable result for Strava today..
Opposing to OTP: Simon looks like he got this one in the bag! Also Fankhauser still in the mix for a Top-10, but the Austrian suffers from his "leadout" duties..
Soler now going past Kuboki/Zielinski and a struggling Vastaranta! Molard not far behind, Alpina's Godoy/Acevedo/Weber, Pozdnyakov and a fighting De Maar in the mix for good places..
A clear winner though: Simon played his finishing skills to perfection and crushed this bunch sprint in style! An active day for his team, which literally did everything: break of the day, chasing the break, trying to attack (Simon), leading the bunch sprint (Fankhauser) and taking the victory.
Kuboki vs Soler for the runner-up...
A tight decision, but Kuboki beats Soler for the runner-up!
Zielinski and Molard finish ahead of Vastaranta, who might have went a bit too early - given his struggles on the final few hundred metres.
Pozdnyakov, Godoy - Acevedo - Weber complete the Top-10 ahead of Fankhauser, Bauer, Matysiak, Novak and long leading De Maar! Kinda huge result for Alpina with four inside the Top-10..
Zeits has to settle for a 19th place eventually..
Einsle pedals to a quiet 25th place, leading five more Strava boys across the line. Weird stuff from the team, that pulled back group Vastaranta earlier on..
Rabon tried today, but goes 34th in the end.. Lejman tried, 43rd..
Mendes tried, but wasn't at the front in this tricky finish, seemingly also going down with a fall or something eventually: 83rd place in a gapped group.
